Monthly Archive for April, 2010

: April, 2010

On Thursday, the Economic Policy Institute accused China — along with Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan — of manipulating their currencies to unfairly boost their exports to the United States. EPI urged Congress to impose 25 percent tariffs on these nations if they don’t bring their currency values into line. …

A tough economy and tight credit are forcing Bay Area business owners to lower their asking prices when they seek to sell their companies, according to BizBuySell.com.”Sellers are being realistic,” said Mike Handelsman, general manager for the online marketplace for businesses-for sale. “They just can’t get for a business today what they could have gotten two years ago.” …

Employment in several high-tech job categories — electrical and electronics engineers, software engineers and computer scientists and systems analysts — returned to levels last seen in 2008, according to data released this month by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and highlighted by the IEEE professional association. …

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) has combined 16 different tax measures into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared according to the costs of their tax systems for entrepreneurship and small business. …

About 18 months ago, three Silicon Valley professionals in their 60s wound up in same support group for unemployed professionals. Noticing that many other group members were also 45 or older, Jeff Winters, David Goldstein and Cher Forman decided to create an online community geared toward older workers hoping to reinvent themselves. …

Sleep Train, the mattress retailer, is hiring. As part of a strategy to increase sales staff to better serve customers, Sleep Train will add 10 percent to its staff beginning with interviews in May and hires in June, including up to 20 open sales positions throughout the Bay area at stores in Monterey, San Jose, San Francisco and the East Bay. The company often receives new hire leads through referrals, and will also be marketing the positions on Career Builder and the company Website (www.sleeptrain.com). …

IMPACT Group, a career management firm, has announced the results from its internal “Candidate Tracking Statistics.” Based on more than 700 interviews with subjects who successfully landed new positions from July 2009 to January 2010, the report identifies how candidates learn about career opportunities and land jobs. The report also analyzes the impact of income, age and gender on job search techniques. …